Author: Leah Stecher
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa, Putnam Six Bookstore
For my children’s book this month, I picked up Leah Stecher’s debut, The Things We Miss, released in May 2024. It is intended for ages 9-12, and it certainly doesn’t shy away from some heavier topics, like grief and depression and body image. I thought that the overall message it pulls from those topics, though, was really beautiful and a good reminder, for kiddos and adults alike.
J.P. and Kevin are best friends and ardent fans of Admiral K, a fictional comic book. J.P. is frequently bullied for her size, so she tends to wear drab clothes and just exist in the background, where her classmates won’t notice her. When she discovers that her backyard treehouse has a portal that can transport her three days into the future, it seems like her problems have been solved. She’s getting teased at school? She has a math quiz coming up? Her grandpa is sick? She can time travel right through all of that. Before long though, J.P.’s using the portal every single day. She doesn’t want to have to deal with any of the hard parts of life; it’s easier to just skip them. The effects of that, though, are her grades are failing, her friendships are crumbling, and she’s missing out on a lot of fun moments too. When she inadvertently skips over the Admiral K movie premiere that she and Kevin have been looking forward to for months, it’s the wake-up call she needs.
Perhaps it was just me, but the first part of the book was a little hard to get into. I thought, too, that the story could have used a little more humor to balance out the heavy topics. Again, though, as the book says, you can’t go downhill without having to go uphill too. Life is both the good and the bad, and therein lies its beauty. The Things We Miss isn’t a perfect book, but it is a pretty solid debut, and I think it can really resonate with a lot of youngsters.
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